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by jonplackett 2414 days ago
Do you really think it's a dark pattern? What does Apple have to gain?
4 comments

I have no idea but I would guess that it’s something quite banal.

They could, for example, sign a deal with an ad network that gives them beneficial rates on the condition that Apple show there is less than 1% churn in device IDFAs per month. Hiding the IDFA reset button would help with that.

It could also quite easily be some PM’s H2 goal to move the needle on IDFA retention. If they provably impact IDFA resets and they get an exceeds expectations rating in that performance review cycle! Bonus stock options all round! Tech companies are weird like that.

I’ve commented before accusing Apple of using growth and engagement tactics with iOS’s Mail.app, presumably to improve mean-time-before-replying-to-grandma metrics, so color me conspiracy theorist / jaded about Silicon Valley performance metrics.

Apple benefits from a robust app market, and many apps are ad supported. This rolls up into more demand for iPhones.
Why do they have this as the default setting if they have nothing to gain from it?
Hilariously, this tracking id is the replacement of device id. To give the user more privacy. But Mozilla has an axe to grind. Baking up the wrong tree
It's still not the correct tree, either.
That would be an excellent question to ask Apple.